Posted October 29, 2007

Geography Awareness Week Presentation: "Migration and Sports: A Broadcaster's Perspective."

Co-Sponsored by the Department of Geography and the Department of Broadcasting.

Thom Brennaman.

A popular and well-known sports television and radio broadcaster, Thom Brennaman will be speaking at Western Illinois University on Tuesday, November 13, at 7:30 pm in the WIU COFAC Recital Hall as a part of celebrating National Geography Awareness Week. 

One of his many topics will be on how the shifting population in the United States from the Frostbelt to the Sunbelt has affected sports fan bases and the .

A versatile sports broadcaster who announces several sports, Brennaman is regarded as one of baseball's top play-by-play broadcasters. From 1990 to 1995, he worked for WGN-TV and Radio doing play-by-play for the Chicago Cubs. In 1994, he joined FOX Sports, announcing NFL games and the network's Saturday Baseball Game of the Week. From 1995 to 2006 Brennaman served as the television voice of the Arizona Diamondbacks.

In 2006, he left Arizona to broadcast for the Cincinnati Reds. Thom's father Marty, is the long-time radio voice of the Reds and the 2000 recipient of Ford C. Frick Award from the National Baseball Hall of Fame. Also in 2006, Thom was named FOX's lead play-by-play announcer for the Bowl Championship Series. In 2007 he called the BCS Championship Game (Ohio State vs. Florida). He has also broadcast the game that many call one of the best ever in college football history -- the 2007 Fiesta Bowl (Boise State vs Oklahoma) -- and arguably the biggest upset in college football history (Appalachian State defeating Michigan).

For more information regarding his visit to WIU, please contact the Geography Department at (309-298-1648)

The public is invited to attend. Admission is free.